Thursday morning...November 19, 1863.
Annual report of the Virginia Central Railroad.
We have received the annual report of the President of the Virginia Central Railroad.
The gross receipts of the road for the fiscal year were $1,522,967 77, and the expenses $768,283 59.
Of the earnings of the road $926,407 was for passenger fare, $428,961 for freight, and $147, 748 for express freight.
The total liabilities of the company are $946,552. The company has twenty-nine locomotives, which can all be used or so repaired as to be useful, and 204 cars.
The road committee make the following report:
The bridge across the Cow pasture river, burnt by the enemy, will be rebuilt and ready for the trains early next year, so there will be a thorough line of travel to Jackson's river, as that across Wilson's creek, which was washed away by a flood in that stream, has been already replaced.
That part of the road lying west of the Blue Ridge is in fine condition for the running of the trains, although very little labor has been spent on it during the past year, the obvious reason for which is that it was ballasted soon after the track was laid, which kept the road-bed dry and prevented the cross-ties from being depressed by the weight of the trains.
On the east side of the Blue Ridge, in nearly all the cuts which are wet, the track is rough and uneven, and the iron is very much worn from the sinking of the cross-ties into the soft road bed, because most of them are without ballast, and the small force which the road master could obtain is entirely inadequate to keep the ditches open, put in cross-ties, and level up the track.
One hundred thousand cross-ties will be needed for the road during the winter and the next summer, and unless a very large additional force can be put on it, if the winter should prove wet, it will be impossible to keep it in a condition to meet the demands of public travel, and also to transport supplies for the army and freight for private citizens.
The timbers placed under the Rivanna bridge as guards against the breaking down of the iron, of which the bridge is built, are decayed, and must be replaced at an early day; or, what would be better, build a bridge of timber, and use the iron of the old bridge for other purposes, as it is much needed in the shops.
The enemy in Upper East Tennessee.
--A correspondent of the Atlanta Register, writing from Upper East Tennessee, promises some cheering news from that direction.
He adds:
As the Yankees drop down the country they commit all sorts of depredations.
They are taking all the wheat, corn, hay, and hogs they can find, and laying waste everything before them.
At Rogersville they destroyed all the fencing for miles.
Col. George R. Powell, Cashier of the Branch Bank of Tennessee, they have almost and numbers of others of the same vicinity.
Capt. Gammon, who was for so long a time Quartermaster at Knoxville, they have stripped; and they went so far as to order his excellent lady to cook for them ! But, like a true Southern woman, us she is, she told them to begone.
As they go, crowd of Union people, including women and children, go with them, and it is said that Cumberland Gap is blockaded with them.
It is certainly true that nearly all of them have left Jonesboro' and Greenville.
Hon. N. G. Taylor, a preacher of right countless, has certainly linked his destiny with them.
Hon. T. A. R. Nelson is also understood to be gone, though I doubt this, for with all Mr. Nelson's faults, I think him an honest and conscientious man. To be sure he is not at home, but is at Knoxville, defending Southern men, many of whom have been arrested and put in jail.
I was surprised to learn that Rev. Mr. Stevens and Col. Wayne Wallace had been imprisoned.
This, however was their own fault, as they went back into the enemy's lines.
Perfidy among the blockade Runners.
--"Dixie,"the Richmond correspondent of the Atlanta Appeal, writes:
The loss of the Venus a week ago at the month of Cape Fear river, was a severe blow to the Quartermaster General, and the casualty was the more lamentable because it was the result of treachery.
I have seen and conversed with a gentleman who came passenger on the Venus, and he me that the vessel had nearly got through the blockading squadron without discovery, and in five minutes more would have been safely out of range of the enemy's guns, when some traitor among the crew rang the steamer's bell, thus giving the Yankees the alarm, and indicating in the darkness the exact direction in which they should open fire.--This they did with such fatal accuracy that three men on the deck of the Venus were killed by the first shot.
Two other shots successively struck the vessel.
At the moment of firing signals were made to all the other ships of the fleet, several of which moved rapidly across the mouth of the river to interrupt the Venus, and nothing was left the captain but to run her upon the beach.
The vespid had no sooner struck than she was surrounded by the launches of the blockaders, and the passengers and crew were descending one side of the ship as the Yankees were swarming over the other.
Twenty-two only made their escape.
Twenty-eight were taken prisoners by the enemy.
The fate of the Venus should be a warning to the captains of Government vessels to be exceedingly careful in the selection of their crews, especially in shipping men in Bermuda and Nassau.
The Yankees, well enough convinced by this time that they cannot effectually close the port of Wilmington by their blockade, are resorting to strategy to compass the capture of our steamers.
Bermuda and Nassau are overrun with the agents of Seward, and these men will lose no opportunity of getting their hirelings on board Confederate vessels, agreeing to pay them enormous sums to betray the ship on which they take service into the hands of the blockaders.
A Congressman from West Virginia.
--A letter in the New York Herald from Ravenwood, "West, Va.," gives the triumph of a virtuous "supporter of the Administration:"
It is now ascertained that the Hon. K. V. Whaley is elected to Congress from this district, over Col. D. Frost, the radical candidate, by six to seven hundred majority.
The result in this district is a well minted rebuke to the Wheeling wire pullers, who sought to defeat Mr. Whaley by sheer lying.--Mr. Whaley was a member of the last Congress, and gave the new State project his warm support.
Parson Brownlow at home.
--The vagabond Person Brownlow is once more at home among his own Lares and Penates, and from the following notice, which appears in the Knoxville Bulletin, is evidently arranging household matters for the winter:
I am wanting five or six loads of Anderson county coal, and for it, delivered at my residence,
Cumberland street, I will pay a liberal price in greenbacks — not in the shaving paper of Jeff Davis's bogus Confederacy, as it would take a hat-crown full of that to pay for one load.
W. G. Brownlow.
The Origin of the names of the days of the Week.
--In the Museum of Berlin, In the hall devoted to Northern antiquities, they have the representations of the idols from whom the names of the days of our week are derived.
From the idol of the sun comes Sunday.
This idol is represented with his face like the sun, holding a burning wheel, with both hands on his breast, signifying his course around the world.
The idol of the moon, from which comes Monday, is habited in a short coat, like a man, but holding, is habited in a short coat, like a man, but holding the moon in his hands.
Tuisco, from which comes Tuesday, was one of the most ancient and popular gods of the Germans, and is represented in his garment of skin, according to their peculiar manner of clothing.
The third day of the week was dedicated to his worship.
Woden, from whence Wednesday, was a valiant prince among the Saxons.
His image was prayed to for victory, Thor, from whence Thursday, is seated on a bed, with twelve stars over head, holding a sceptre in the right hand.
Frigs, from whence we have Friday, is represented with a drawn sword in his right hand and a bow in his left.
He was the giver of peace and plenty.--Sorter, from whom is Saturday, has the appearance of perfect wretchedness; he is thin visaged, long haired, with a long beard.
He carried a pail of water in his right hand, wherein are fruits and flowers.
The yells of our army.
--The soldier of the army of Northern Virginia is essentially a yelling animal.
He has a yell peculiar to himself, by which his success in battle is denoted even at the moment of victory.
When he is pleased, be yells as an outlet for his exuberant spirits; when he is displeased, he yells at the offending official as an opening of the safety valve restraining his pent up passions.
If he is cold, he yells, in order to force his blood into more rapid circulation; if he is too warm, he yells out the heat, and thereby relieves his excited feelings.
The history of the Confederate yet requires a skillful pen to portray it, in all its peculiarities, so I will drop the subject by merely noticing the latest subject for the exercise of Confederate yelling powers.
Whenever a surgeon approaches a regiment a bystander would think that the annual migration of all the ducks in the universe had commenced, and that they were concentrated in that particular spot, for the air resounds with "quack, quack, quack," and the unfortunate quack — I beg his pardon, I mean surgeon — rides off, endeavoring to preserve his dignity as best he can.-- Army Letter.
The substitute question.
The substitute question will doubtless be raised at an early day in the Congress which assembles early next month.
The Governor of Georgia in his message to the Legislature devotes a considerable space to the consideration of this question.
We make some extracts from his views:
That portion of the conscript act which authorizes those within conscript age to employ substitutes has, in my opinion, been productive of the most unfortunate results.
If conscription is right, or if it is to be acquiesced in as a matter of necessity, it is certainly just that it act upon all alike, whether rich or poor.
With the substitution principle in the act, its effect has been to compel the poorer class, who have no money with which to employ substitutes, to enter the army, no matter what may be the condition of their families at home, while the rich, who have money with which to employ substitutes, have often escaped compulsory service.
This is not just as between man and man. While I trust I have shown that the poorest man in the Confederacy has such interest at stake as should stimulate him to endure any amount of hardship or danger for the success of our cause, it cannot be denied that the wealthy are under as great obligation to do service, as they have, in addition to the rights and liberties of themselves and their children, a large amount of property to protect.
If every wealthy man would do his duty and share his part of the dangers of the war, but few complaints would be heard from the poor.--But if the money of the rich is to continue to secure them from the hardships, privations and dangers to which the poor are exposed, discontent, and more or less demoralization in the army, must be the inevitable result.
He who has paid two or three thousand dollars for his substitute has often made it back in a single month by speculation, and it has not unfrequently happened that the families of those in service at eleven dollars per month have been the most unfortunate victims of his splenization and extortion.
A very large number of stunt, able-bodied young men between 18 and 45 years of age, ace now out of the army, and in their places the Government has accepted old men over 45, who have, in most cases, been unable to undergo long marches, privation, and fatigue.
Thousands of these have sunk by the way, either into the hospitals or into the grave.
It is also understood that much the larger number of deserters and stragglers from the army have been substitutes, who have entered it for hire, and after receiving the stipulated price have sought the first opportunity to escape, which they have in some instances been permitted to do with the acquiescence and encouragement of officers, who have been their partners in guilty speculation.--Thus the same individual has been accepted as a substitute for each of several able-bodied young men, who have been left at home to seek for gain and enjoy comfort, while our enemies have gained advantages on account of the weakness of our armies.
If we expect to be successful in our struggle the law must be so changed as to place is service the tens of thousands of young men who are now at home.
This would reinforce our armies so as to enable us to drive back the enemy upon every part of our borders.
After this change in the law the Government could provide for the protection of the most important interests at home, by making proper details of such persons as are indispensably necessary.
This would be much better than the extension of the conscription act up to 50 or 55, as it would bring into the field young men able to endure service, in place of old men who must soon fail when exposed to great fatigue and hard ship, many of whom are as competent as young men to overseer plantations and attend to other home interests.
But it may be dented that the Government can now so change the law as to make those who have furnished substitutes liable to service, as it is bound by its contract to exempt them, and they have acquired vested rights under the contract which it is not in the power of the Government to divest.
Let us examine this for a moment.
Purchase a lot of land from the State of Georgia, and pay her one thousand dollars for it, and she conveys it to me by grant under her great seal.
The contract is as solemn and binding as the Government can make it. My fee simple title is vested and complete.
But while I have the grant in my pocket and the State has my money in her treasury, it is discovered that public necessity requires the State to repossess herself of the land; I refuse to sell to her; she may pay me just compensation and take the land without my consent, and she violates no fundamental principle, as all our private rights must yield to the public good, and if we are injured we can only require just compensation for the injury.
Again, suppose I have labored hard and made upon my land a surplus of provisions which are my own right and property, and I refuse to sell them to the Government, when the army is in need of them; it may take them without my consent and pay me just compensation, and I have been deprived of none of my constitutional rights.
The right of a person who has employed a substitute to be exempt from military service can certainly stand upon no higher ground.
The Government has extended to such persons the privilege of exemption upon the employment of a proper substitute, but if the public safety requires it the Government certainly has as much right to revoke this privilege as it has to take from me my land, or my provisions, or other property, for public use; and all the person who employed the substitute could demand would be just compensation for the injury.
The measure of damage might be the amount paid by the principal for his substitute, less a just prorate for the time the substitute has served, and upon the payment of the damage or the just compensation for it, the Government would have the right to retain the substitute as well as the principal in service, as the substitute has been paid by the principal for the service, and the principal has been compensated for the damage done by him by ordering him into service.
It would be competent, however, in estimating the damages in such case, to take into the account the interest the principal has in the success of our cause and the establishment of our independence, as necessary to the perpetuity of his liberties and the security of all his rights.
It would also be competent to inquire whether he has indeed suffered any pecuniary loss.
If he has paid three thousand dollars for a substitute, and has been kept out of the army for that sum for one year, and during that time he has made ten thousand dollars more, by speculation or otherwise, than he would have made had he been in the army, at eleven dollars per month, the actual amount of compensation due from the Government to him might be very small indeed, if anything.
Believing that the public necessity requires it, and entertaining no doubt that Congress possesses the power to remedy the evil, without violating vested rights, I respectfully recommend the passage of a joint resolution by this General Assembly requesting Congress to repeal that part of the conscript act which authorizes the employment of substitutes; and, as conscription is the present policy of the Government, to require all persons able to do military duty, who have substitutes in service, to enter the military service of the Confederacy with the least possible delay, and to provide some just rule of compensation to those who may be injured by the enactment of such a law. I also recommend that said resolution instruct our Senators, and request our representatives in Congress, to vote for and urge the passage of this measure at the earliest possible day.
How the Yankees are to be Bankrupted.
--A correspondent of the Yorkville Enquirer calculates that the siege of Charleston will prove an unprofitable business to the Yankee nation.
He demonstrates how the Yankees are ruining themselves and not hurting us much with the following statement of figures:
I have been ciphering a little in regard to operations in Charleston harbor, and have come to the conclusion that if we have the right kind of bomb-proofs in Sumter, that this is the very place where we shall break Abe's back bone, ( I mean his credit.) Here are my figures: One thousand shots per day--300 pounds of iron to the shot and 30 of powder; iron at 10 cents per lb., powder at 50 cents--making for one shot a cost of $45. The sledge has been progressing 120 days at a cost of $5,425,000. In this calculation I have said nothing of the enormous expense required to keep up and pay off the innumerable war vessels, transports, &c. Neither have I taken into account the guns that are bursted occasionally or rendered useless by the excess of firing.
Let us all keep a "stiff upper lip," stand by our own Government and its credit, and ere long we shall see the value of gold and "green backs" shoot off in an opposite direction, and separate wider and wider until the last convulsive throb of the Lincoln Government shall proclaim the independence of the Confederate States, and the return of our war-worn veterans to their happy homes.
Down with all who depreciate our money in order to obtain starvation prices."
Must be free.
--Gov. Brown, of Georgia, was inaugurated Governor of the State for the fourth term on the 4th inst. He closes his inaugural address as follows:
Remembering the sacrifices we, as a people, have made, the sufferings which we have endured, the noble Southern blood which our enemies have split, the deadly hate which they feel toward us, the cruel wrongs which our females have encountered, and the degradation, bondage, and chains which await us and our posterity if we are subjugated, let us humbly and fervently invoke the aid of Almighty Power, and, laying aside all past differences and personal considerations, let us gather around our country's altar, and while we ardently desire peace upon honorable terms, let us here again renew the solemn pledge to each other that come life or death, come weal or woe, we will never sheathe the sword till constitutional liberty is established, Georgia is free, and these Confederate States are recognized by all the world an independent power.
Unfortunate.
--Five Confederate vessels, attempting to run the blockade off the Texas coast, have been thwarted.
One, the Friendship, was heavily with munitions of war. Another, with powder and percussion caps, was blown up by the Confederates.
Two others were fired and blown up.
A furious Onslaught on Mayor Opdyke, of New York, by Thurlow Weed.
Notwithstanding the intense anxiety of the Abolitionists in New York about "the flag," they occasionally find time to expose each other's thieving operations.
There is a pretty quarried between Thurlow Weed and Mayor Opdyke, of New York city, and here is Thurlow's letter.:
Editors Evening Journal: In a recent letter, designed, first, to admonish the Democratic party of the folly and fate of disloyalty; and, second, to expose the sham patriotism of boisterous Abolitionists, I made use of Mayor Opdyke and Editor Tilton as examples.
Both have replied.
Neither deny the material accusation, viz: the draft and the skulking. But to another accusation Mayor Opdyke says:
"He next charges my son with holding offices.
There would be nothing improper in this if it were true, unless he had bought them of some office broker, like Mr. Weed.
But it so happens that he has never asked for nor received an office of any kind, unless the barren commission of notary public may be regarded as such."
Was Mr. Opdyke's notary's commission a "barren" one ? We shall see. Mr. Opdyke, senior, after filling the Custom House with relatives (one a Breckinridge rowdy) and followers, demanded the notarial business of that department for his son. Opdyke, junior, was therefore installed as Custom House notary.
But the ordinary business of the department did not suffice.
The officers and employees were required to go before the notary with a "barren commission" monthly and swear to their account — swear that.
"Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February, which hath twenty-eight alone;
concluding with a payment of a quarter of a dollar each to Notary Opdyke ! Some of the officers rebelled; but if five hundred out of the thousand "walked up to the captain's office and settled," the notary realized $1,500 per annum in that slim way.
"Equally groundless is the charge against me of being 'gorged with Government contracts.' This, if true, would not be at all censurable, provided I obtained them fairly and executed them with fidelity."
The charge that Mayor Opdyke is "gorged with profitable contracts" is "equally groundless." It is not his Honor the Mayor, but his Honor the Mayor's son-in-law, who is "gorged" with a profitable gun contract.
And when the rioters burned the gun factory, his Honor the Mayor had nothing to do with getting a prompt allowance of over $200,000 from the city, without going through the process to which ordinary claimants are subjected.
Mayor Opdyke get offices and jobs "fairly" and executes them with "fidelity."
Mr. Spenlow, the eminent doctors commons, solicitor, and "David Copperfield's father-in-law," was upright, liberal, and even generous; but his partner, Mr. Jorkins, was a grasping, miserly skinflint.
Mayor Opdyke has had no sleeping or silent partnership"no "shoddy" interests ! He did not infest Quartermaster Vinton's office, competing with the Jews for "unclean drippings.?" Not he ! Catch him at that, if you can ! Look into the open, fresh, manly face ! Do you discover anything sinister or sordid there ? By no means.
It is his partner, Jorkins, with the "hang-dog look," who gets gun contracts, furnishes "shoddy," and hides away in convenient places, where he can be found at convenient times, to approve convenient ordinances before inconvenient injunctions can be served !
I have not met with the reply of Mr. Tilton, of the Independent. But the next time that skulking conscript comes upon the stage with a musket, showing a delightful Abolition audience how "Old John Brown" went through the facings and firings, I will endeavor to be there and see. T. W.
Prayer of the extortioner.
--We have some times wondered whether the extortioner ever prayed.
We should like to hear his prayer, or rather read the secrets of his heart, while ostensibly engaged in the holy exercises.
His words, interpolated with his thoughts, would be something like what follows:
Our Father who art in Heaven — I wonder what will be the price of wheat this season.
My crop is fine, very fine.
I think I might get at least four dollars for it. I should like to get ten--Hallowed be Thy name — if the season continues I shall make a tremendous crop of corn, and as my cribs are now sufficient to last me two years it will be a clear profit — Thy kingdom come — Chickens are a great institution.
Before the war I used to sell them for ten cents, now I get two dollars. I can scarcely find it in my heart to pray for peace — Thy will be done on earth — I believe I won't sell my corn to the soldiers' relief society.
They don't give enough — as it is done in Heaven.
That old steer brought me two hundred dollars, Give us this day our daily bread — my poor neighbor, who has a poor husband in the army, and six little children at home, must find it hard to get along.
The Lord bless her and hers.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us — my old friend Smith was rather hard, on me when he said I gouged the poor, but I forgive him — and lead us not into temptation — I am afraid our pastor's prosperity will prove a share to him. Why, brother Jones sent a cow and calf — but deliver us from evil.
I wish our pastor would quit preaching on extortion.
If he don't, I will stop subscription, sure.
He is really an evil.
He won't let a body be at peace — for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever.
I believe I will send some milch cows to Atlanta.
I hear they are bringing tremendous prices.
The merchants there do charge awfully for their goods.
Lord have mercy on us and save us from such extortioners — Amen !
An ancient iron Clad.
--We examined a few days ago, in the office of Attorney-General Galbraith, a very interesting historical relic, being a portion of the armor of one of the Spanish Knights who first invaded and explored the wilds of this Western continent.
The armor was found in the neighborhood of Monticello, in Jefferson country, in this State.
The portions preserved are the helmet, the vizor and gorget, and coverings for the arms.
We understand that the rest of the armor was found, but has been inadvertently lost or destroyed.
This armor is of the most solid and substantial character, that for the head alone weighing fifteen or twenty pounds, and being impenetrable to musket or rifle balls.
It is probable that the armor belonged to one of the expeditions of Pamphillo de Narvaez, which was lost in the country, or to one of the army of De Soto, and is about three hundred and fifty years old — perhaps much older.
There is a romantic interest attached to these relies of the early conquerors of the New World.
These iron trappings probably encased the form of one who sought gold and glory, and found a grave in the vast wilderness of America or perhaps some old knight who invested the remainder of a sad and unhappy life in the search for the "Fountain of Youth," but whom death surprised cry his limbs had been bathed in its rejuvenating waters.
Be this as it may, he was no "carpet knight," for the frame that could bear this iron encasement must have known the discipline of arms, and been strengthened in the battle and the breeze.
The armor is of complete workman ship; strong rather than fine, and must have been as complete a covering for the human form as the armor of the ocean monsters that bid defiance to the rifle cannon shot of the present day. Probably, in future times, the iron-clads of our own day will be regarded as the curiosities of a past age, the utility of which will hardly be perceptible to our descendants.--Tallahassee Floridan and Journal.
Yankee doodle and the English rams.
--Yankee self-importance is strikingly-illustrated by a wood-cut in Frank Leslie's newspaper.
The picture represents a large conservatory, the glass windows of which are fractured in several places.--Yankee doodle, a respectable looking gentleman with a bell-crowned hat, appears in the attitude of arresting a chubby little bull-headed urchin, who has been shying little iron-clad rams at the conservatory.
Doodle holds a ram in his right hand, which he has just taken from the little culprit, whom he holds by the collar with his left.
The latter, terrified out of his wits, is endeavoring to conceal a ram which he was about to throw behind his back, while in the back ground is seen a figure with the imperial nose and goatee retiring from the scene at a Bull Run pace.
The following dialogue explains the design of the Yankee artist:
Uncle Sam.--"Now, you young rascal, Bull, I' ve caught you. If you dare to fire another I'll lam you ! You've done enough mischief already, but I'll make your mother pay every cent of it."
Bult.--"Oh, sir ! Please, sir ! It wasn't me ! "
The picture will be very flattering to the national pride of the British people.
The population of the earth.
--A professor of the University of Berlin has recently published the result of his researches as to the population of the earth, according to which Europe contains 272 millions, Asia 720 millions, Africa 89 millions, America 200 millions, and Polynesia 2 millions, making a grand total of 1,283 millions of inhabitants.
At places where deaths are accurately registered, the annual mortality is at least one in forty; the number of deaths must be about 32 millions every year, which gives 87,761 per day, 2,653 per hour, and 60 per minute, so that every second witnesses the extinction of one human life.
An other calculator states that the number of persons who have lived on the earth since the creation is 36,627,740,275,075,855 !